The End of an Era

The initial date of Snowball was Friday Jan. 23, but due to a lack of student interest the dance ended up being canceled two days prior on Wednesday Jan. 21.

After consulting with members of the student council E-Board, Principal Mr. Stephens made the executive decision to cancel the dance.

This year, if students who bought tickets to the Snowball dance from the student council, they would automatically be entered into a give-away of a Beats by Dre Pill speaker. Senior Kelly M. said, “The Beats Pill did not influence my decision to buy a Snowball ticket because I already have speakers of my own.” On the other hand, senior Pat C. said, “The Beats Pill was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae in terms of the Snowball dance, but I didn’t buy my ticket in time before it got canceled.” President of the E-Board, Chris L. said, “Some students just wanted to buy the tickets in order to be entered into the give-away and did not even care about the dance.”

A lack of student interest in the dance led to its being canceled. “Student participation has been an issue,” said Chris. He said that it is frustrating for him and the other members of the E-Board when there is a lack of participation. The E-Board is trying to have events that people would like and enjoy. “If people just went and didn’t care about what other people thought it would be fun but that isn’t the reality” said Chris.

Mr. Stephens told the E-Board that there was not enough interest in the dance to actually hold it since there were only 40 tickets sold. In order to hold the dance ,100-130 tickets must have been sold. Mr. Stephens said, “Snowball has been happening the last 10 years, and it is one of those dances that just got stuck in a rut.” Mr. Stephens did not want the E-Board to lose too much money, so he decided that it would be best to cancel it. Student council had already reserved a DJ, so they lost the down payment for that, but holding the dance would have been more expensive than actually canceling it because E-Board would have to hire police and provide snacks and refreshments. Chris wanted to sell tickets at the door, but it was too much of a risk to spend the money.

Each class has to raise money somehow so student council has been brainstorming ideas besides dances .Mr. Stephens and the members of student council have come up with other ideas to increase student participation aside from dances. A student run coffee house singing event was an idea, or a faculty-student basketball game.

Chris agrees, acknowledges, and knows that students want dances to change and said, “We hear you loud and clear and we hope you come to future events”